<< previous review   next review >>

reviews

“Chinatown Brasserie”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	Asian	East Village	Moderate	Great

ven after all of these dim sum, we ordered another few rounds of the shrimp and Chinese chive dumplings because we all wanted at lease one more. That’s how good they were.

As we moved into making some decisions about main courses, mayhem approached. All my seagulls started calling out a dish; the negotiations were getting heated. Finally we came up with a plan (no need for a food fight) that we all seemed happy with, though Debbie did lose her shrimp with black bean sauce to Stacey’s shrimp with broccoli. My picks were the spicy beancurd with chopped pork ($13) and the pork fried rice ($9). (What can I say? I am a nice Jewish girl who loves her pork.) The fried rice approached the realm of flawless—steamy and silky and flecked with ribbons of egg, and hunks of braised and pulled pork shoulder, but the beancurd with spicy pork, while a knock out on spice and heat, was too mushy. I would have preferred it with firm tofu rather than soft beancurd that melted under the weight of the pork. Peking Duck ($46) was also not as great as it should have been that first night—the skin was limp and the meat was dry. But on another visit, the duck had fixed itself up, with a tight crispy skin and succulent meat.

The crispy orange beef ($17), an old school classic, did us right—thin and tender slices of crispy beef in a nicely balanced sauce that was sweet but not cloying. Crispy whole fish in a chile and basil sauce ($24) was a beautiful spectacle, a big fish with a fried fish smile (or glare), but it was difficult to get much meat off its bones, which perhaps is not fault of the kitchen, but we didn’t really have the patience to pick around all the bones. Instead, we dipped some sticky rice in the pulpy red chile sauce, which was grand. General Tso ($16) showed up too, with fat golden nuggets of chicken slathered in a sauce with the right amount of heat to riff off the sweetness.

On another night, eating at the bar with Diana before we saw Satellites (an amazing play with Sandra Oh at the Public), we had a quick order of thin noodles to tide us over that was fantastic—all twisty and thin as filament, and loaded up with hunks of roast pork and fresh snappy vegetables ($14).

The weak link at Chinatown was dessert ($9). There are two options—dessert dim sum and regular desserts. Under Dim Sum, the sesame balls were not my thing, and from the regular menu, the warm chocolate cake ... [more, click below]

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  

 Make a reservation

<< previous review   next review >>

Posted: June 25, 2006

Other restaurants in East Village :
+ Yujin-- Closed   + Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar   + Mermaid Inn   + Five Points   + Lavagna   + Five Points   + Bond Street   + Jewel Bako   + Alphabet Kitchen   + In Vino   + Bao 111   + Chikalicious   + Il Buco   + Hearth   + Lima's Taste   + Mercadito   + Hedeh   + Momofuku   + Una Pizza Napoletana   + Winebar   + Uovo-- CLOSED   + Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction   + Gotham Bar & Grill   + Colors   + Chinatown Brasserie   + Knife and Fork   + European Union-- NEW CHEF; SEE APRIL 2007 Review   + Aroma Kitchen and Winebar   + Stand   + European Union   + Mercat   + Gemma   + Back Forty   + The Smith   + Seymour Burton   + Belcourt   + Graffiti   + The Redhead   + Double Crown    + Apiary   + Joe Doe   + Apiary by guest reviewer Kiri Tannenbaum   + DBGB   + Northern Spy   + Goat Town   + Saxon + Parole   + Il Buco Alimentari & Vineria   + Acme   + Calliope   + Nicoletta   + JEPPNEY by Claire Jaffe   + Feast   

Share ! Post a comment